1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to relayed multicast, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for transmitting parameters required for a multicast agent's operation.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Relayed multicast is a method by which efficient group communication is provided to a network that does not support multicast by using a multicast agent (MA) operating on user equipment (UE). The relayed multicast provides a one-to-many or many-to-many multicast function via communication between multicast agents. In order to support mobile node, dedicated agent called mobile multicast agent (MMA) operating on service provider-side equipment is provided. The operation of MMA is similar to that of MA but MMA also conducts operations to support mobile node. In order for multicast agents/mobile multicast agents to communicate with one another, they have to join the same session. Each session is managed by a session manager (SM). Parameters required for a multicast agent's operation in a relayed multicast network and a method of using the same are defined.
In conventional relayed multicast, parameters required to build a relayed multicast network have default values defined for each multicast agent, and these default values are used for a relayed multicast operation. However, even if it is necessary that the parameters have different values for each multicast session depending on the situation to improve the communication efficiency of relayed multicast, there is no method of transmitting newly defined parameters to multicast agents.